yvonne L.’s Reviews

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  Eat, Pray, Love
  Elizabeth Gilbert

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  Eat Pray Love

  16/11/2010

  This is one of those books that seem to be either really liked or really disliked.
  
  I disliked it. Very much.
  
  The premise is really interesting. Searching for self and the meaning of it all by focusing on three important aspects in life: physical, spiritual and emotional needs.
  
  Unfortunately I was never convinced by the author. Not of her initial personal pain, which set her of on this journey and not on the genuineness (is that a word?)of what she discovered on her year long search.
  
  Basically: bored with marriage, committment shy, self absorbed female has tantrum and runs away without a single thought of her good fortune and privilege.
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  Walking The Camino: A Modern Pilgrimage To Santiago
  Tony Kevin

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  Walking the Camino: a Modern Pilgrimage

  16/11/2010

  A lovely book, which probably appealed to me so very much, because all the ruminations on local history, local politics and important questions on life by the author would have been ruminated on by myself had I walked the Camino.
  
  For me this was a truly vicarious experience of doing this pilgrimage. It has made me even more determined to walk this pilgrame and want to walk this particular route (it is not the popular route normally walked)of the Camino, just because of the wonderful descriptions of the villages/towns and the history, not to mention the spiritual aspects.
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  The Bride Stripped Bare
  Nikki Gemmell

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  the Bride stripped bare

  16/11/2010

  Well written book exploring the inner struggle the main character has between what she thinks society expects from her, to be regarded a good girl, good wife, and what she actually feels. It is an exploration of herself on an erotic level. It is interesting to view this book with the art work by Marcel Duchamp of the same name in mind.
  
  It is also about independence vs dependence and security, how these issues are so often an either or choice and how a child heightens this vulnerability. It is about marriage and expectations.
  
  It is essentially a story of inner conflict and the compromises (from a woman's point of view) that marriage demands.
  
  Finally, it is also about her relationships with her mother and female best friend, how these influence her.
  
  The anonymity of the author of course has to give the reader a taste of the fantasy of what if...... What if I could explore a sexual fantasy anonymously? What could the consequences be if I had the courage to truly explore my sexuality?
  
  Her descriptions of her growing awareness of her body, especially when pregnant where beautiful.
  
  A marvelous book. Highly recommended.
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  The Lacuna
  Barbara Kingsolver

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  Lacuna

  16/11/2010

  An amaxing book and so, so appropriate for these times.
  
  The story is set before WWII till the McCarthy era in Mexico and the USA. My sense of how parallel those times of obsessions with 'un-American' (here in Australia un-Australian) behaviour is with today is uncanny. The Lacuna can be rewritten with just a few adjustments of dates and suspects and it would be a story set today.
  
  Apart from being a very interesting story of one person's life set in an interesting time and place, it also gives food for thought how society still to this day is very uncomfortable with and afraid of 'otherness' and how easy it is to scare a whole population with insinuation, misinformation and threats.
  
  This book stayed with me for a long time.
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  Wolf Hall
  Hilary Mantel

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  Wolf Hall

  16/11/2010

  A marvelous historical story set in England during that interesting time when Henry VIII wanted to marry Anna Boleyn and divorce his first wife.
  
  It is told entirely from the viewpoint of Thomas Cromwell. A person you'll get to know well.
  
  Beautifully, beautifully descriptive. I could clearly imagine the people and their clothes for instance.
  
  One of the best books I've read in a long while.
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  A Woman Of Seville
  Sallie Muirden

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  A woman of Seville

  16/11/2010

  Beautifully written book.
  
  I first thought this would be a straightforward book set in the early 17th century Spain, the blurb on the back is a bit misleading. The setting is simply the interesting back-drop exploring love and freedom. There is also a beaustiful use of magical realism as is more often associated with Latin American authors.
  
  Paula, one of the two main characters through whom we view the world, gives us the most indept musings on love and freedom-the act of falling into balance.
  
  The other main character looking for love and freedom is the Spanish painter Diego Velazquez as a young apprentice. He struggles with his inadvertent responsibility for the capture of a Muslim young boy. Though religiously conformist, this is the era of the inquisition, he does appear to struggle with the persecution of the Muslims in Spain at the time. At the end of the book he imagines the painting he will paint depicting the flight of the Moors, which indeed he did.
  
  The book alternates between these two characters whose lives are only in contact with each other on the periphery.
  
  
  
  
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  The Finkler Question
  Howard Jacobson

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  The Finkler Question

  16/11/2010

  Only because this book is easy to read did I finish it. Although the characters were all well drawn and interesting as protagonists in a story, for me it went on and on and on and on a bit too long. It would have been much funnier and
  poignant reduced to half the length. It was unbearably repetitive.
  
  Probably shows my age, but a book like this would have appealed to me more in my early 20's when I still had the inclination to worry and disect any psychic sore endlessly and talk about it ad nauseum to whomever would listen.